The present invention relates to a new, novel and distinct variety of nectarine tree, Prunus persica, which has been denominated varietally as ‘Burnecteighteen’ hereinafter.
The present variety of nectarine tree resulted from an on-going program of fruit and nut tree breeding. The purpose of this program is to improve the commercial quality of deciduous fruit and nut varieties, and rootstocks, by creating and releasing promising selections of prunus, malus and regia species. To this end we make both controlled and hybrid cross pollinations each year in order to produce seedling populations from which improved progenies are evaluated and selected.
The seedling ‘Burnecteighteen’ was originated by us from a population of seedlings grown in our experimental orchards located near Fowler, Calif. The seedlings, grown on their own roots, were the result of a controlled cross, which we conducted. The seed parent was an unnamed yellow-fleshed clingstone nectarine tree (unpatented), which was originally derived by us from a cross of the ‘Red Diamond’ nectarine (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 3,165) with the ‘Summer Red’ nectarine tree (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 5,211). An un-named, white-fleshed nectarine seedling was used as the pollen parent. This cross was made in March 1998. Thereafter seeds from this cross were collected and planted in the autumn of 1998. One seedling, denoted as E49.005, which is the present variety, exhibited especially desirable characteristics and was marked for subsequent observation. After the 2000 fruiting season, the new variety of nectarine tree was selected for advanced evaluation and repropagation.